overbear
/əʊvəˈbɛː/
"overbear" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“overbear” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To carry over.
Corpus desk
Index EN-overbear · overbear · English
overbear · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | overbear |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /əʊvəˈbɛː/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “overbear” in English
Rare enough to double-check
overbear is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed /əʊvəˈbɛː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
overbear doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English overberen; equivalent to over- + bear. The correct English form is overbear, spelled O-V-E-R-B-E-A-R.
Definition
- 1To carry over.
- 2To push through by physical weight or strength; to overwhelm, overcome.
- 3To prevail over; to dominate, overpower; to oppress.
- 4To produce an overabundance of fruit.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how overbear appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I attacked first and they were overborne, / Glad to apologize and even suing / Pardon for what they'd never thought of doing.
It often fals, in course of common life, / That right long time is overborne of wrong […].
Etymology
From Middle English overberen; equivalent to over- + bear.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.